


Soft Touches

by Speeps



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 19:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11237553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Speeps/pseuds/Speeps
Summary: Where the small smiles, the lingering gazes and the soft touches leave the team wondering if there's something going on behind the scenes.ORSoft Klance ft. Oblivious Teammates





	Soft Touches

**Author's Note:**

> Yo whaddup my fellow klancers!
> 
> Tiny note to say this is dedicated to my glorious spacefam, and that the characters, scenes and events here are works of fiction. Voltron: Legendary Defender obviously isn't owned by me, because if I did own it I'd be rolling in cash and would have made klance canon from episode one.
> 
> Enjoy!

It started off with small touches. A brush of the shoulder as Shiro would hold a team meeting. Knees pressed together when lounging after a meal. A ghost of finger tips against finger tips as they walked beside each other down the corridors. As the rest of the team were concerned, they were just content that the merciless arguing between the two paladins had halted, instead replaced with playful teasing and puns that sent the other rocking with laughter. 

Hunk, ever cheerful, had reacted positively to their bonding. Laughing with them was so easy, the jokes effortlessly passing Lance’s grinning lips. Ignoring Shiro’s protests and Allura’s constant nagging, Lance was often found sitting atop the kitchen counter, legs swinging to and fro as he chatted. This had been a constant even before the bickering had died down, and now Keith joined him, sat leaning against the kitchen cupboards on the floor beside him. The three of them would chat as Hunk baked, taste-testing his wonderful creations and politely refusing(or as politely as Lance could attempt) to try Coran’s concoctions. 

When cleaning and fixing the ever-broken ship, Coran would often find himself joined by the two paladins, Lance handing him various Altean instruments as Keith would watch on curiously. The advisor would often engage in absolutely wonderful conversations with Keith, discussing the intricacies of Altean technology, all the while watching Lance’s wistful and soft expression out of the corner of his eye. It was weeks before he had found a name for this expression, his discovery bringing a small smile to his lips. It was a mixture of admiration and adoration, fondness, and although he knew his impressive moustache was indeed gorgeous, he knew who that expression was directed to. 

Allura first noticed when she had realised the constant flirting she had been enduring with Lance was becoming less…constant. It had almost become second nature to her, words almost begging to be toyed with followed with a brief pause as she waited for Lance to make a move. But no pick-up lines came. Just a simple snigger, an elbow to the side and murmured protests graced her elongated ears, her blue eyes catching the twinkle in indigo ones as Lance stuck his bottom lip out, pouting. 

It was not until their small touches escalated did Shiro realise. After a hard practice, when the entire team had retreated to the lounge for rest, Lance’s head had found itself on Keith’s shoulder. Raising an eyebrow, Shiro had watched for Keith’s annoyed expression, but none came. Instead, Keith had simply rested his head on top of Lance’s, breathing heavily and nursing an aching arm. 

When the rest of the team started animated conversation, Shiro noticed the unusual silence coming from Lance, and the slight but noticeable shaking of his hands and shoulders. The others, engaged in conversation, seemed unaware of this development. All but one. Eyes flickering up to Keith, he saw the hard line that Keith had pressed his mouth into. He saw the one arm he had rested on Lance to soothe him. He saw the deep sadness in Lance’s eyes, but made no comment on it, turning back to the conversation with an inquisitive expression on his face. 

Then later, on one of his patrols, he decided to check in on Keith, questions ready to spill from his mouth. But alas, his room had been empty, bed made neatly and jacket hung on a hook. Cocking an eyebrow, Shiro then stalked to Lance’s room, only a few feet down the corridor, when he heard a faint sobbing leaking out from beneath the bedroom door. He was just about to knock when he heard a familiar voice and froze. 

“Shhhhh,” the voice shushed, “Calm down, Lance. They’re safe, they’re okay, no one’s going to hurt them.” 

A hiccup was heard. 

“But, you don’t KNOW that!” a panicked but muffled voice replied, undeniably Lance but with a strange edge to it. Shiro was so used to his boisterous voice, echoing through the near-empty rooms and bringing smiles to the other paladin’s faces. This Lance, this voice, was small. Shy, almost. And it was wracked with grief, tears rounding his words. 

Keith sighed. “Look, I’m going to tell you something. I’m going to tell you the truth, okay? No one knows. No one will ever know if your family is okay, unless we visit them. And I know - it kills. But you need to keep living - living for them. You need to hold onto that hope that they’re alive, that they’re okay and that they’re thriving. You need to hope that when all this is over, you can come back, and they’d be so proud of you. You need to do that, okay?” 

Shiro, standing outside of the door, felt tears prick at his eyes as he heard his words. Biting his lip, he continued to listen, placing a hand on the door. 

The sobs died down, and soon soft snores filled their place, Keith’s soft, melodic humming bringing a smile to his face. It had been so long since he had heard that song hummed, and even then it had been him soothing Keith from nightmares when he was just a child. How times had changed. 

He left them, knowing that they would be alright. 

After that incident, the team noticed the touches become even longer. Hunk had one day stumbled into the lounge to find Keith scanning through mission reports Coran had tasked him on reading, eyebrow furrowed as he held them in front of him with one hand. His other hand, however, was combing through Lance’s chocolate brown hair, said boy having laid his head in his lap and was softly snoring, a blissful look on his face. 

A few days later, they had been having a rest day and were watching a movie, blankets spilled out onto the lounge and mountains of pillows serving as comfortable seats. As they were watching, Allura had spied Lance nearly submerged in a pile of pillows, Keith’s head resting gently on his chest and a content smile on his face. Perhaps she had imagined it, or maybe the dark had played tricks on her eyes, for she had seen Keith snuggle slightly into Lance’s side, and Lance had buried his nose into Keith’s coal-black hair. 

It was then a full week afterwards that Shiro had double-took when he saw the door of the observatory open and two familiar figures inside. Lance and Keith had been sitting on the floor, quiet voices murmuring stories as they watched the stars pass by. A soft laugh, one Shiro had never heard from Lance before, escaped the blue paladin’s lips, and to his shock an equally loving laugh had come from Keith’s. 

It was unbelievable to see how they had changed. They were beside each other at every given opportunity, shoulders pressed together and sending knowing looks to the other. Lance grew more quiet, more contemplative, and his brilliant team strategies that had gotten him his scholarship to the Garrison were unleashed, the others watching in awe. Hunk had watched as his best friend, the one who had always been nervous about his ideas, the one who had rarely believed in himself, and the one who always covered up his immense intellect with a cheerful and easy-going fake attitude, really embrace who he was and give valuable input into talks, the others welcoming it wholeheartedly. 

One day, when Lance had strategically marked out a flight path to reach galra-controlled planets in the optimal amount of time and was presenting his finding to the group, Hunk had caught sight of a pair of adoring indigo eyes trained on his gleeful expression. Keith was listening, chin in one hand and the most sickeningly sweet smile on his face. Hunk bit the inside of his mouth to stop him from squealing with joy. 

On the other hand, besides Lance embracing his battle skills, Keith had changed too. He was found in the kitchen in the mornings, helping Coran with making breakfast before the clueless Altean could try and feed them weird goo. The training room was often found empty, when before Keith had spent his whole time obsessively working up the training levels. And he had unleashed a wicked sense of humour. His dirty jokes were to die for, often so sinful that it sent him and Lance cackling with laughter, red in the face and sides aching as the bewildered others watched on. Lance’s playful and honestly great jokes were contrasted to Keith’s wicked sense of humour, and together they would often find it hard to breathe by the end of team presentations. As disruptive as they were, Pidge and Hunk would often catch a few of their whispers and join in on howling in laughter, the entire affair sending everyone into giggles.

They worked so well together. They balanced each other out, pulling each other to and fro before either could over-step their boundaries. Before Lance could even try to insult rude aliens before they’d formed an alliance, Keith was there, a light touch to the elbow grounding Lance and telling him to brush it off. When Keith’s face would turn red as Shiro would once again refuse his plan (or lack thereof) of attack, Lance would gently place a hand on his shoulder, an apologetic look on his face as he smiled at him, refusing to let go until Keith smiled back. 

If Keith was feeling especially down and went to take out his feelings in the training room, Lance would sit there with him, making sure he was okay and taking him back to his room once he could tell that he was about to collapse. Whenever Lance’s ADHD caused him to expend his energy enough to make him crumple to the floor, Keith was there to sling his arm around his neck and take him to bed. 

The process was slow, but it finally started to dawn fully on the rest of the paladins. Lance slinging his legs over Keith’s when lounging. Keith picking up a face mask for Lance when going on a space mall trip. Them laughing together. Eating together. Just being overall content with each other. 

Once, when parking on a nearby planet for repairs after a particularly nasty galra attack, the castle’s temperature regulation systems had malfunctioned and it was especially cold. Keith, being the mega emo he was, only had skin-tight black shirts and jackets cut above his hip. He had absolutely no choice but to borrow Lance’s clothes. Or that’s what he said to the others when he trudged in that morning with Lance’s hoodie, slightly too big and gathered into sweater-paws in his hands, a light blush dusting his cheeks. In fact, a month or two later when they had landed on an excruciatingly hot planet Lance had pulled the same excuse but for the hot weather instead, donning one of Keith’s t-shirts in favour of his long sleeved ones. 

But then rolled around the tragic day in which a casualty had befallen the team. After taking a nasty hit to the stomach from a galra blaster, Lance had been carried into the Red Lion, panic clear in Keith’s eyes as he rushed him to the castle, sprinting to the healing pods and breathing heavily as he watched Coran prep Lance. He was told that he would take at least 6 days in the pod, but Keith was found in the pod room every day, circles under his eyes as he watched wistfully, twirling his knife between his fingers with anxiety. 

Shiro would sit with him sometimes. He would bring food to him, and would talk, though Keith rarely conversed back. No one dared try to pull him away from the room for training, for they knew what would happen if they did. 

“You…really care about him, don’t you?” Shiro had asked on the third day, a plate of half-eaten space food by both of their feet. 

Slowly, Keith had nodded, the crease in between his eyebrows so deep Shiro worried it would be left there permanently. 

“You know, I get that you care for him. I really do. But you can’t just sit here, waiting for him all day.” 

At that, Keith looked at him, despair clear in his eyes. “Someone’s got to be there for him when he wakes up.”

“We were there for him last time, remember? One of our first missions, where the castle got abducted? Coran had told us approximately when he’d wake up, and we were there, waiting for him.” 

“No we weren’t!” Keith said loudly, arms crossed at his chest.

Shiro cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

Keith cursed, bringing his knees up to his chin and resting his head there. “Lance…well, he’s been keeping a lot of secrets from you guys.” 

“‘You guys’? You mean he’s not keeping them from you?” Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“He still has secrets he keeps from me. I’m just glad he’s able to tell someone else about at least some of them.”

“But what does this have to do with the healing pod?” 

At that, Keith groaned and covered his face. “God, I shouldn’t have said anything. He told me he’d tell you guys when he was ready.”

“Then we’ll wait for him.” 

Keith looked up at that, incredulous. “You’ll what?”

“You heard what I said.” 

Keith seemed to pause for a second, before a wide grin stretched onto his face. “I told him! I freaking told him, and he wouldn’t believe me. Idiot.” he smiled, looking back at the healing pod. Shiro smiled, ruffled his hair and picked up the plate, turning to leave. 

“Wait, Shiro?” 

He turned. 

“Thanks.” 

Nodding his head, Shiro left the room, a relieved and amused expression on his face. 

They were insufferable once Lance had healed. If the others had thought they were touchy-feely before, then they might as well be joined at the hip by now. They now did everything together, the worried pit in Keith’s stomach never seeming to go away unless he had Lance beside him at all times. Soon, they fell back into routine, fighting galra, forming Voltron, making alliances. All the while, both paladins never left each other’s side. 

After what happened, Keith had taken to pulling Lance by the hand to the training room and teaching him proper hand to hand combat. They practiced on each other first, Keith’s giggles as Lance slipped over yet again ringing through the castles walls. Swords were next, and soon they were sword-fighting every weekend, Lance’s competitive streak appearing as he started to actually win one or two games. Within three weeks, Lance had given up on hearing Keith's mocking laughter whenever they fought and soon he was teaching Keith how to shoot a gun. 

Funny thing is: Keith can't shoot for shit. 

Lance had never expected it from him. Keith was such a bad shot that Lance had to stifle his giggles with his hand as he attempted to aim towards the target. Fuming, Keith was concentrating hard, eyebrows knitted together in his focus. Lance stepped up to him, so close that they were almost nose to nose, and took one nonchalant glance at the target and angled the blaster a bit to the right. 

“Try it now.” he whispered, playful glint in his cerulean eyes. Keith took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, the laser creating a satisfying burn dead centre of the target. He grinned, his face a mixture of pride and disbelief, but when he turned to look back at Lance, his breath hitched in his throat. For Lance had not moved from his spot opposite Keith, their faces even closer than before as their lips were only centimetres apart. The eyes staring back at him were fond and full of pride, causing a light blush to dust his cheeks. 

Before he could stop himself, Keith’s violet eyes flickered down to Lance’s lips and up again, watching as Lance’s did the same. Closer, and closer they moved their heads, hearts beating fast as Lance’s lips brushed lightly against Keith’s own. It was painfully slow, and Keith can feel the hesitance vibrating off of the other paladin, as if Lance was expecting him to wrinkle his nose in disgust and push him away. 

But instead, his eyes fluttered closed and he closed the minuscule gap, both boys smiling into the kiss as Keith dropped the gun, pulling Lance closer until their bodies were pressed flush against each other. Divine, caramel fingers made their way up to Keith’s hair, winding into his black locks like he was so used to doing. The red paladin held onto his shoulders, not wanting to let him go as he melted into the kiss, softly sighing as Lance’s soft lips moved against his own. 

The kiss was gentle, tentative, one of exploration. When they finally pulled apart, slightly out of breath, Keith was met with a smile so blinding he almost felt like he needed to shield his eyes. Giggling, he pressed his lips against Lance’s nose, causing the taller boy to cross his eyes and making him laugh even more. They stood there, laughing, hands intertwined and their training forgotten. 

It was no surprise to the rest of the team when they strolled into breakfast the next morning, hands clasped together and a playful smile on each of their faces. Pidge, who had known from the first moment she saw the two interact with each other, jabbed a single finger at Shiro. 

“Ha! I quiznacking told you so!” she proclaimed, holding a hand out. “You owe me.” 

“I don't know what you’re talking about.” Shiro replied, a nonchalant air to his voice. 

“What’s going on?” Lance asked, taking a seat with Keith following right next to him. 

“We’ve had a bet since we first left Earth about you two and Shiro is being a SORE LOSER!” Pidge said pointedly, raising an eyebrow at their leader. 

“I recall no such thing.” 

Helpfully, Hunk pulled out a recording device and Shiro’s voice was soon ringing through the dining room. 

“I, Takashi Shirogane, bet that Lance and Keith will only get together in the next year.”

“And I, Pidge Gunderson,” rang out Pidge’s voice, “bet that they’ll be together within the next nine months. If I win, Shiro lets me hack his arm to make him constantly look like he’s sucking dick for two weeks.”

Lance burst out laughing, making Shiro’s face look even more disgruntled.

“And if Pidge loses, I get to spray paint 27 dicks on their lion and they give me their computer for a week.” 

The recording stopped, and Pidge’s shit-eating grin was directed at Shiro, who only groaned.

“Fine,” Shiro pouted, crossing his arms. “When do you want it?” 

Lance was cackling at the whole exchange, Keith having turned as red as his lion. Lance glanced at him and squeezed his hand. “Is this okay?” he whispered, concern in his tone. Keith nodded, a small smile on his flushed face.

“This is perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> So that was my first shot at a bit of klance fluff. Let me know what you think, and don't hesitate to message me on my main tumblr blog (@eww-get-away-from-me) or my fanfic blog (@speepers - under construction)


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